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His crab beehoon is lavishly praised. It is also notoriously ex ($340 for 4 pax). How good is Chef Danny’s Crab Beehoon?

Before last month, I saw at least 3-5 reruns of Anthony Bourdain coming to Singapore and trying the hawker food. The culmination seems to be when he drives up to this grimy Geylang place, Sin Huat Eating House. What culinary magic resides in Lorong 35?

Honestly, I don’t quite know. “crab beehoon” (4/5) ended up being disjoint. “crab and beehoon” would be a more apt description. at no point did I actually eat crab and beehoon together. The eating process went:

1. pick up piece of crab
2. crack piece of crab
3. try to suck out crabmeat and spit out crabshell
4. put down piece of crab
5. take chopsticks and eat beehoon
6. put down chopsticks and repeat

The sauce, which got all over my chopsticks was a nice shallot crab-roe based sauce. It tasted abit lard-y as well. (I have no idea if any of this is true).

The beehoon got in the way of my enjoying the crab, and the crab got in the way of enjoying the beehoon. I’m a bit puzzled as to why people rave about it.

earlier in the evening, chef danny, while taking our orders at the table, went down a prepared list of dishes.

“scallops?” “okay”
“gong gong” “er small one can?”
“you can do a large one. I’ll do a large one.”
“prawns” “er…okay”
“fish?” “no, no that’s enough”

he’s been called a food nazi, but chef Danny just strikes me as a nazi.(Frontera Grill in Chicago – which according to one Yelp review prevents takeout even by dine-in diners because they can’t “assure quality” is a “food nazi” place. Chef Danny just seems more focused on ticking the boxes.

Scallops (4/5) – smothered in sweet bean sauce, served on the shell (and with all innard intact)Gong Gong (2.5/5)– Steamed shellfish, with a sweet chili sauce. Sharp claw at the end. Use a toothpick to spear the meaty parts, or most of it stays in the shell.Garlic Prawns (3/5)– Standard fare.

One rule I’ve found is that prawn dishes in cze char restaurants, unless they are making oatmeal prawns, is blah. The prawn isusually flavourless and tough. I suspect this is because they don’t usually fully shell the prawn, and often overcook it as well.

Maybe try it once, just to see what’s the hype’s about. But it really isn’t THAAAT great.